Protective device against burglary.



No. 657,672. Patented Sept. II, I900.

A. PETTERNEL. PROTECTIVE DEVICE AGAINST BURGLARY.

(Application filed Nov. 7, 1899.) N o M o d a l 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

,"mz u'onms Perms m, PNOTO-LIYNO.,WASH1NDTON. n. c.

Pai'ented Sept. II, I900.

A. PETTERNEL.

PROTECTIVE DEVICE AGAINST BURGLARY.

(Application filed Nov. 7, 1899A 2 Sheets-Sheet 2,

(No Model.)

Unrrnn STATES PATENT OFFIcE.

AUGUST PETTERNEL, OF SIEBENHIRTEN, AUSTRIA-HUN GARY.

PROTECTIVE DEVICE AGAINST BURGLARY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters latent N 0. 657,672, datedSeptember 11, 1900.

Application filed November 7, 1899. Serial No. 736,174. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUGUST PETTERNEL, manufacturer, of Siebenhirten,district of Modling, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Protective Devices AgainstBurglary, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a device for preventing burglary,and iscapable of being utilized for any kind of closed spaces, such asapartments, money-chests, and the like.

The essential feature of the invention is that the space or chamber tobe protected at those places which are most liable to be broken into oropened-for instance, in the case of money-chests all .around or in thecase ,of apartments at the door or the window or along the walls-iscovered with plates or frames joined to each other and provided with twoseparate grooved sets or frames containing air of different densities,both said plates or frames being mounted and each carrying inside a Ushaped mercury-tube, so that whenever the grooves or the rarefied orcompressed air contained therein are in any way acted. upon the closingof an electric circuit in which a burglar-alarm is inserted is efiected,thus giving a warning signal. By the use of grooved plates it ispossible to render a space or chamber perfectly secure, considering thatthe distance and the width of the grooves need not exceed one millimeterin view of burglarytools of less thickness being out of question, andtherefore in a case of intended burglary a union of the two groovedsets, and consequently the closing of an electric circuit, will beeffected without fail. My invention thus removes the possibility ofpreventing the closing of the electric circuit by plugging the holebroken into, as may be done with the devices known heretofore and alsobased upon the use of air of different densities.

The invention is clearly illustrated in the accompanying drawings,- likefigures of reference indicating like parts.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a safe rendered burglar proof by theapplication of my invention. Figs. 2, 3, and 4 show one of the groovedplates in front view and crosssection and back view, respectively. Fig.5 is a rear view, and Figs. 6 and 7 are edge views,

partly in cross-section, of grooved plates with cover-plates; and Figs.8 to 10 are detail views.

From Figs. 2, 3, and 4 it may be seen how the grooves are provided uponboth sides of the frames and form two entirely-independent sets 1 2. Thegrooves are about one millimeter in width. The distance between theindividual grooves is likewise one millimeter, and the frame or solidportions projecting between the grooves are in the same plane as orflush with the smooth frame edge 3. The grooves 1 of the front surfaceare connected to each other and communicate by cross-channels 4c of theframe with the grooves 1 of the rear surface. In like manner also thegrooves 2 are connected with each other and communicate bycross-channels 5 with the grooves 2 of the rear surface. Both sides ofthe grooved frames are provided with cover-plates 6 7, Figs. 5, 6, and7, held together by screws, one side of these coverplates being providedwith thin varnish coatings, this varnished side being cemented onto thegrooved frame, so that a perfect hermetical joint between twonon-communicating systems of channels is obtained. The varnish coatingbetween the grooved frames and the cover-plates may, however, besubstituted by other suitable tightening means as by simply inserting,for instance, india-rubber pieces, which, if not adhesive in themselves,are fixed to the plates by means of screws. It is also practicable toprovide a number of grooved frames and their appertaining innercover-plates with one common outer cover-plate. In all cases the outercover-plate 6that is to say, the one most directly exposed to beingforced or brokenis not provided with any opening, whereas each innercover-plate 7 is provided with eight holes through it, of which the fourouter ones 8 communicate with the set of grooves 1 and the four innerones 9 with the set of grooves 2. Moreover, each inner cover-plate istraversed by a main groove 10, divided into two parts by an insertedpacking 34. From this groove three grooves 11, 12, and 13 are branched,the first one of which 11 communicates with one of the holes 8 and thesecond one 12 with one of the holes 9 and with the set of grooves 1 or2, respectively, while ,the third groove 13 has no direct communiwallsand tightened by means of nuts.

cation wit-h the grooved frame. The object of these grooves will bedescribed farther on. Upon each inner cover-plate a plate 14 is fixed,by which the grooves arrangedinthe cover-plate are formed into closedchannels or conduits. The plate itself is provided with twelve grooves.The four outer ones 15 are located above the holes 8, the four innerones 16 above the holes 9, the two holes 17 and 18 above the groove 13,and the two outer holes 19 and 20 above the main groove 10 of thecover-plate. The two grooves 19 and 20 are each closed or opened by asmall set-screw 21, acting as a valve, which allows the passage of airout of or into the conduits of the grooved plate or out of or into thearm of the U-shaped mercury-tube 22. The U- shaped mercury-tube 22,which consists of two short glass tubes containing mercury and havingtheir lower ends connected by a metal tube, is located in acorresponding recess of the supporting-plate, which latter is, moreover,furnished with grooves 23 and 24, the former of which connect the holes15 and 17 and the latter the grooves 16 and 18 with one another. Uponthe plate is also a glass plate 25, by which two systems of conduits areformed, one of which connects the grooves 1 with the one arm of theU-shaped mercurytube and the other the grooves 2 with the other arm ofthe U-shaped mercury-tube. Now in both systems of conduits, as hasalready been mentioned, air-pressures are produced different relativelyto each other and to he outer air by either pumping air into or outthrough the valves 21, so that the mercury stands at unequal levels inthe arms of the U-shaped mercury-tube.

In the case when the device is applied to ceilings and walls the U-shaped tubes are normally suspended; but where they are applied tofloorings they are arranged standing, and for the latter purpose theyare constructed as shown in Fig. 9. In this form grooves 16 areconnected by a groove 16 to the closed tube or chamber 16*, with whichone leg of the U shaped mercury-tube, the upper end of which is open,communicates. Grooves 15 are likewise connected to tube or chamber 16,with which the other leg of the mercurytube communicates by a groove16. In the form of device shown in Fig. 9 glass plates 25 are placed onboth the vertical and the horizontal parts of the frame for closing thegrooves, dtc. as above described. The space to be protected is fittedwith the above described grooved frames furnished with coverplates,supporting-plates, and U shaped mercury-t-ube, the construction of theframes and plates being adapted to the special requirements of eachcase.In case of safes or chests, for instance, the inner cover-plates areprovidedwith a number of screw-threaded pins 7 26, Figs. 5, 6, and 7,passed through corresponding openings 27 of the iron frame used insubstitution for the ordinary safe or chest The same method may beadopted for making the walls of apartments burglar-proof.

In cases where the coverplates are made of cement or a similar materialthe fastening-pins 26 are preferably passed through the grooved frameuntil one-half of the outer cover-plate is reached, Fig. 7.

In all cases the frames and plates arranged beside and above one anotherpresent outwardly a perfectly-smooth surface, offering no point ofapplication whatever for burglars tools, and upon damaging such platesand frames to any appreciable extent either a communication isestablished between the grooves 1 and 2 or between one of them and theouter air, the effect being that in the former case the mercury-levelsin the U-shaped mercury-tubeare equalized, while in the latter case,owing to the entering of outer air into or owing to the escaping ofcompressed air out of one of the systems of conduits, the levels aredisplaced relatively toeach other, thus closing in either case by meansof respective conductors a circuit by which any suitable alarm apparatusmay be actuated. The conducting connection between the source ofelectricity and the frames and plates ;is made as follows: One pole ofbattery 28, Fig. 1, is connected by wire 28 to one of the plates, andthe other pole is connected to an Einsulated" metal pyramid 29 of one ofthe @plates or frames, open at the bottom, Figs. 51, 5, and 10, andadapted to receivea projecition or knob 31, (ofthe next plate,) which isiconnected with an insulated wire in the main 1; groove 10 ofcover-plate 7. The parts29 31 and the wires of all plates thus areelectrically i connected with the one pole of the battery, iwhile theirother pole, as already mentioned, is directly connected with the platesand iframes. With the latter the metal tube of ieach U-shapedmercury-tube 22 is also con- Enected by a wire 32, Figs. 1 and 8, whileinto Eboth arms of the U shaped mercury-tube wires extend so asto beequidistant from each ljmercury-level. These are passed through theholes 17 and 18, connected with the groove 513, and electricallyconnected with the wire 30. The open parts of the groove 10, divided gbythe packing 34, are finally hermetically iclosed by means of glassplates. Now as soon las (either by boring the cover-plates or in anyiother manner) a connection is established beitween the two systems ofgrooves l 2 or the vgouter air enters one of the latter or an escapeiofcompressed air takes place the mercury of gthe U-shaped mercury-tube22 will close the jcircuit, so that if an alarm apparatus is connectedthereto the signal given bythe latter .will draw attention to theintended burglary. What I claim, and desire to secure by LetftersPatent, is

1. In aprotective device against burglary, the combination of an.electric alarm-circuit, plates or frames for covering the space to beprotected and provided with two separate and independent sets of grooves1, 2, the air contained in one set differing in density from thatcontained in the other set and also from the outer air, a U-shapedmercury-tube 22, terminals of the alarm-circuit extending into the armsof the U-shaped mercury-tube, each set of grooves communicating with anarm of the U -shaped mercury-tube, the mercury-level of which when thegrooves are broken into will change and close the a1arm-circuit andactuate the alarm substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. In a protective device against burglary the combination of platescovering the part to be protected, adjacent but non=communieating setsof grooves 1, 2, in said plates, a hermetically sealed cover plate forsaid grooves, a U -shaped mercury-tube 22,'the grooves l communicatingwith one leg of the U-shaped mercury-tube, the grooves 2 communicatingwith the other leg, wires 33 extending into the legs but not to themercury and connected to one side of an alarm-circuit, wire 32 connectedto the mercury in the U shaped n1ercury-tube and to the other side ofthe alarm-circuit, whereby changing the relative pressure in grooves 1,2, will close the alarm-circuit 3. In a protective device againstburglary the combination of plates covering the part to be protected,adjacent but non-communicating sets of grooves 1, 2, in said plates onboth sides thereof, the grooves on one side of the grooved plate beingconnected .to similar grooves on the other side of the plate,hermetically-sealed cover-plates on the sides of the grooved plateclosing said grooves, a U-shaped mercury-tube 22, the grooves 1communicating with one leg of the U-shaped mercury-tube, the grooves 2communicating with the other leg, Wires 33 extending into the legs butnot to the mercury and connected to one side of an alarm-circuit, wire32 connected to the mercury in the U-shaped mercury-tube and to theother side of the alarm-circuit, whereby changing the relative pressurein grooves 1, 2, on either side of the grooved plate will close thealarm-circuit.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name, this 24th day ofOctober, 1899, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. AUGUSTPETTERNEL. Witnesses:

JOHN LUX, ALVESTO S. HoeUn.

